/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Poetanon !1NxoI62zpM No.5880935]

Have you ever been interested in Italian cousine and its dishes?
Have you ever been curious about what Italian people eat daily?
Have you ever been eager to know what this little yet comfortable country can offer?

This thread may help you:
With the contribution of, I hope, many Anons, Italians or Americans or cooks wanting to know more about this culinarie tradition, we may discover something we don't know.


First question: How much do you pay for a bowl of pasta in a restaurant in your town? I go to a famous pizzeria, but prices there are very cheap: 10 euros for a big portion of pasta with clams.
For a good dinner the maximum is 40 euros, tips not included(here we don't give any kind of tips)

[Poetanon !1NxoI62zpM No.5880945]

First recipe:
Mozzarella in carrozza:

Ingredients:
Toast bread
One egg for each "mozzarella in carrozza"(it requires two slices of bread)
Mozzarella sliced
Salt and oil
Flour

Shake the eggs in a terrine
Put the toast JUST BY ONE SIDE into this terrine, then into a terrine with flour inside;
Thus, have the mozzarella put on the "dry" side of the bread(the latter is soaked with egg and flour);
Repeat those lines for another slice of this bread;

Unite the aforementioned slices, then fry them in hot oil. When it's done, eat it.

[Poetanon !1NxoI62zpM No.5880947]

Second recipe:

Pasta all'arrabbiata:

Cook some spaghetti as usual; in a terrine have some basil, parsel, mint, oregano, cherry tomatoes and, if you want, some mozzarella.

When pasta is almost cooked, put the aforementioned ingredients into the pan, and wait until everything is done.

[Anonymous No.5880983]

>>5880947
I don't think most know how to even do a proper spaghetti.

[Anonymous No.5880987]

>>5880945
So basically a grilled cheese sandwich, but battered and fried.

[Anonymous No.5880988]

>>5880945
Do you unite the mozzarella sides together or the egg & flour sides together?

[Anonymous No.5880992]

This thread is also a good place to ask questions regarding our cooking methods and general philosophy.

Note that some of the ingredients of our cuisine are also a bit hard to get sometimes.
And don't forget that there are a few things that are sacred dogmas for us, like the scientifically proved fact that nobody makes lasagne as good as one's mom for instance.

[Anonymous No.5880995]

Anyone know any good recipes from Calabria? My family is from Calabria but lost its roots and many things forgotten. I'd love to reconnect to my heritage.

[Anonymous No.5881013]

>>5880988
There's a trick for that, you have to remove the "crust" of the sandwhich and make it kinda melt by pressing it and kneading the two slices' extremities together, in Sicily they usually wet the toast slices with milk to make them easy to knead and to add flavor.
Be sure to have a good frying pan with a lot of hot oil, it must be sizzling hot as you want the flour and milk to caramel and give time to the mozzarella to melt.

If I may add something do take the mozzarella out of the fridge early so it's at room temperature when you cook the thing, it makes it easier to melt, remember that the traditional mozzarella di bufala (if you can even find a good one out of here) releases quite a lot of water with the heat so you might want to press it a bit and eliminate the surplus fluids, otherwise it won't cook and can become a watery mess inside.


>>5880995
Well, Calabria has a particularly fat and spicy typical cuisine, and when I say fat I mean it, lotsa oil and animal fats, you might want to handle that with care as it's very easy to get weight with most of the recipes.

What would you prefer Anon?

Meat dishes?
Veggies?
Pasta?

[Anonymous No.5881019]

>>5880935
I'm with ya OP

> OP stranamente non è un fagotto

[Anonymous No.5881038]

>>5881019
>> OP stranamente non è un fagotto
>Implicando

OP's a cool guy, I'm still getting my shit together to make a cool thread for /ck/ as an Italianon.

[Anonymous No.5881106]

Is the Silver Spoon a good reference book for cooking Italian food?

[Anonymous No.5882350]

>>5881013
I have god-tier metabolism and cannot gain weight, so gaining weight from recipes, if even possible, are a bonus.

As for the kind of dishes, I'm open to all kinds.

[Anonymous No.5883192]

>>5881106
Well, it's one of our cooking bibles so it's definitely something you would like to have if you're interested in Italian cuisine, one of the most famous books over here is the so called Artusi, which is perhaps the biggest and most detailed book about traditional Italian cuisine you can find, it's also very nice to read though I don't know how much the translation can convey.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/324074.Science_in_the_Kitchen_and_the_Art_of_Eating_Well

I would recommend you to get it as it's a must have for every cook imho.

>>5882350
Ah, you're just like me then. Well I looked around in my various recipe books and found a few things you might like, they're also pretty easy to make and the ingredients are very common too.

The first one is what they call Maccu, which is a kind of soup made of broad beans, I hope you haven't got favism though.

This is an extremely easy to make dish and it can also be eaten cold as it's very refreshing.

Ingredients:
>500 g. of broad beans
>Olive oil, preferably extra virgin
>fennel branches, preferably fresh
>some people I know also add slightly ground fennel seeds, but they have a pretty strong flavour imho

You'll need a good amount of broad beans, I suggest you get some dehydrated broad beans as they're cheaper and easier to find, now get a medium pot and put enough water to cover the beans, be careful not to use more than you'll need though, remember the golden rule, you can always add something later but you can't remove it.
Now, when the water starts boiling switch the fire to low-medium and use a ladle to slowly churn the broad beans until you get a creamy, uniform soup, if you've put more water than necessary you'll have to wait until the excess water has evaporated otherwise the soup will be more liquid.
After you finish this part add some good olive oil, or better yet, let everyone add oil as much as they see fit, and add some little fennel branches.

[Anonymous No.5883225]

>>5883192
For a more consistent(read: fat) dish I'd say you could try to do the classic Parmigiana.

Ingredients

>Eggplants
>Parmisan, duh
>Olive oil,
>Tomato sauce, I use double concentrated tomato sauce though I know many who use triple concentrated
>Onions
>Garlic
>Some good cheese that can melt properly, we mainly use Cacio.
>Optional: Cooking salt for the eggplants
>A good casserole

Now, let's start with the optional stuff first.

Some people do not like the bitter flavour most eggplants have, though I personally love it, so you can get rid of it by using cooking salt in order to absorb most of the fluids. Slice the eggplants in thin slices, you might want to use a mandoline slicer if you're not practical enough with knives and if you're not scared of losing a finger or two, once you finish put a layer of cooking salt for every layer of eggplants and let it rest for 45 min. or even a hour, be sure to clean them thoroughly afterwards.

Now, prepare the tomato sauce, put some oil in a frying pan, cut the onions and garlic and let them fry until they get the usual golden hue, then put the concentrated tomato sauce diluted with a glass of water and let it cook slowly until it's ready.

Slice the eggplants if you haven't already done the optional step and fry them in a frying pan until they are half cooked, you can tell they're ready when they lose the typical spongy texture they're raw. After they're done slice the cheese in the same way.

Now oil your casserole and add some tomato sauce on the bottom and do a few layers following this order:
>Eggplants
>Ground Parmisan
>Sliced Cheese
>Tomato Sauce
>Ground Parmisan
>Sliced Cheese
>Rinse and repeat the pattern from the Eggplants layer

Stick it in ya oven and cook for about half an hour/40 mins at 180° if you have a fan-assisted oven, otherwise 200° if you have a conventional one.

If you want some visual reference look at this, it's quite accurate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyTE42M_spk

[Anonymous No.5883228]

>>5883225
Second opinion for Parmigiana: for a stronger flavor you can substitute sliced cheese for thin sliced ham. I also like to add a bit of pesto (or some minced basil leaves) to the sauce layer.

>using cooking salt in order to absorb most of the fluids
Salt doesn't absorb shit, fluids are released through osmosis

[Anonymous No.5883244]

>>5883228
>I also like to add a bit of pesto
Good choice, you'll have to explain how to make it though.

>Salt doesn't absorb shit, fluids are released through osmosis

Yeah, I fucked up, I'll be more careful with checking my posts but I'm kinda in a hurry now.

What is Pesto? It's a typical sauce from the Liguria region, it's also quite versatile since you can put it kinda everywhere, like pasta, ricotta, spreading it on a crust of bread etc.

There are also several variations of the original recipe, when people talk about pesto they usually mean the Pesto alla Genovese which is the most famous and classic version of this recipe.

In order to make Pesto you'll need.

>Fresh basil leaves
>Extra virgin olive oil
>Garlic
>Ground parmisan
>Pine nuts
>A blender

First of all, the original way of making pesto requires the use of a mortat and pestle instaed of a blender, I can tell you from my own experience, the result is different but unless you're a literal gourmet you don't need to waste all the time and energy required to use a mortar, it's really time consuming when you can simply use a blender or a minipimer.

Now, wash the basil leaves, you'll need quite a lot of those, be forewarned, add some oil and parmisan and do a first blending session, add the pine nuts and blend again, continue adding all the ingredients and keep on blending until you finish.

Regarding the texture, some people like it smooth, I personally prefer pesto when it has bits of crunchy pine nuts.
Some other versions also adds nuts or even almonds, and there's also a "red" pesto which is basicaly pesto with the addition of tomato sauce.

[Anonymous No.5883246]

>>5880935
no to all of the above

[Anonymous No.5883247]

>>5883244
There's this one antipasto I usually do when I make pesto and ricotta and it has never failed me when I had guests.
You'll need to blend some pesto and ricotta until you obtain a uniform green compound, next cook some bell peppers on a grill, the best one for this recipe would be the red variety as it's sweeter than the green ones and has a stronger flavour than yellow ones.

Cut the cooked bell peppers in large stripes, and make a topping of the compound of ricotta and pesto, bonus points if you add half a nut on top of it.

It's a great way to start a meal.

[Anonymous No.5883248]

>>5880935
how many stock cubes do you put in your risotto

[Anonymous No.5883258]

>>5883248
It really depends on the quality of cubes and how salty they are.

I use glutamate free stock cubes and only use half cube for a good portion of risotto, let's say 500 g.

If you're badass though you can use meat stock, it's much tastier than veggie stock and goes perfectly with the marrow in the risotto.

[Anonymous No.5883262]

>>5883258
lol come back when you start to use real stock

>you are a fraud

[Anonymous No.5883285]

>>5883262
What the fuck are you even talking about?

[Anonymous No.5883415]

>>5883192
>>5883225
Awesome; mille grazie!

[Anonymous No.5883654]

>>5883415
You're welcome Anon.

[Anonymous No.5883656]

>>5883285

throw away the cubes. Use proper stock instead.

[Anonymous No.5883662]

>>5883656
That's why I said to make meat stock in the first place.

And you don't always have time to prepare a proper stock, cubes are a nice commodity and some of those are actually quite decent.

[Anonymous No.5883673]

>>5883662
>And you don't always have time to prepare a proper stock

That's why you make big batches in advance, portion it up, and freeze it.

>>a nice commodity
I disagree.
>>quite decent
Not good enough.

[Anonymous No.5883675]

>>5883673
>Not good enough.
There's literally no difference.

[Anonymous No.5883681]

>>5883673
>That's why you make big batches in advance, portion it up, and freeze it.

Not all of us have huge freezers and I personally prefer to store something like good meat or fish, cubes are much more convenient in every way except the actual taste of the thing, and as I said, some of those are decent if not very good.

You're acting as an elitist for the sake of being an elitist.

[Anonymous No.5883684]

>>5883675

Sounds like you don't know how to make good stock then.

Most bullion cubes have two major problems: too much salt instead of the proper meat or veggie flavor, and insufficient (usually zero) gelatin. Some of the better brands of stock cubes aren't so bad with the salt and you can get low-sodium versions. But they all fail in the texture department. Stock isn't just for flavor. It's also for texture. A meat stock ought to contain so much gelatin from the bones that it will set up like jello desert in the fridge. That gelatin is important--it's what provides the nice texture in your dishes. Stock cubes don't have that.

[Anonymous No.5883692]

>>5883681
>Not all of us have huge freezers

I don't either. I boil the stock down and freeze it in an ice cube tray. Takes very little space.

[Anonymous No.5883713]

>>5883692
>I boil the stock down and freeze it in an ice cube tray.

But you'll only get a cold fat jelly from that, that ain't real stock either. Might as well throw in a piece of lard in your soup.

Anyway, this is the veggie stock cubes I use and so far it's the best I've found, very similar to the real thing and not really costly either considering the quality of the product.

http://www.bauer.it/en/products/stock-cubes/vegetable-stock-cube/

[Anonymous No.5883731]

>>5883713
>But you'll only get a cold fat jelly from that

No, there's no fat in it. You skim the fat off and throw it away. I suppose if you wanted to be anal you'd call it either demi-glace or glaze depending on how much you reduced it, but all you need to do is add water back to it and it's stock.

The cubes for veggie stock are usually much better than the meat stock ones since veggie stock isn't expected to contain gelatin.

[Anonymous No.5883736]

>>5880935
Horay. We can dispel the myth that Italian food is a blob of cheese dumped on pasta, such that you might find in any North American Italian restaurant.

[Anonymous No.5883771]

>>5883731
>You skim the fat off and throw it away
Heresy, what's a meat stock without the fat?

And I only noticed now, I didn't mention I never use meat stock cubes, I'm sorry if there has been some misunderstanding, the only cubes I use is veggie stock.
>>5883736
>We can dispel the myth that Italian food is a blob of cheese dumped on pasta
Actually that's not a myth at all, before the 20nth century pasta was pretty much that if you exclude some more regional recipes such as pesto.

The famous spaghetti with tomato sauce is a product of the WW when canned tomatoes found a large place in the Italian market, in most regions pasta was usually eaten with various cheese types, it was so common there's even a famous proverb, "Come il cacio sui maccheroni" .

[Anonymous No.5885478]

>>5880935
Bump